Ellen Apperson Brown is proud of her liberal arts education with three masters level degrees, her broad experience working as an administrator for non-profit organizations, and her success in researching and writing about history. Her fascination with family history began in earnest about 35 years ago, when she peeked into an old trunk full of letters and photographs that had been passed down in her family, from her great uncle, John S. Apperson, and suddenly realized what her life’s work should be. In addition to going back to school and learning the ropes about the rules and methodology of scholarly research and writing, she has become the leading expert in the life and times of those remarkable activists, often referred to as the Schenectady Force, who figured out how to save the Adirondacks from logging, development, and all sorts of greed and self-interest. Her website (www.adirondackactivism.com) is quite a remarkable accomplishment, too, since it offers scholars over 1,200 letters from the Apperson archives, all transcribed and searchable by name. She lives in Asheville, NC, but hopes to get invited to spend more time in the North Country, and to share her expertise as a curator, public speaker, and advisor to anyone interested in learning more about the early days of the preservation movement, especially at Lake George.